1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for portable objects including an electric or electronic circuit such as an interchangeable electronic card for example, but not exclusively of the type of the electronic credit card described in patent France No. 2 337 381.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is generally known that numerous solutions have already been proposed for providing the connection between such electronic cards and a fixed electronic processing system. These solutions usually comprise either devices with jaw and rocking lever carriage or devices with sliding contacts.
The devices with jaw and rocking lever carriage have the drawback of requiring a space-consuming assembly of delicate mechanical parts, because they are moving and so relatively costly. These devices, one embodiment of which is described in the patent France No. 2445 560, are therfore not well suited to integration in apparatus intended for the general public, some of which must be portable.
Furthermore, there exists at the present time a prejudice against using sliding contact connectors in this type of application. Thus, for example, the patent France No. 2 445 560 categorically rejects this solution for the following reasons:
the contact blades have to sweep a surface of the removable object (card) other than the output terminals, which would tend to increase the aging of the contacts;
the contact blades, considering the structure of the contact zones of the cards would pass successively over output terminals which do not correspond to them (arrangement in columns in the direction of handling the card), which would lead to restricitive safety measures for avoiding undesirable electric connections.
These remarks, which are justified if we take as basis the structure of certain sliding contact connectors used currently in other applications, do not take into account the different technological, ergonomic and economic aspects of the problem.